In the company of their staff members and colleagues, Lim Teck Yin, CEO of Sport Singapore (SportSG), and Yves Claude, Asia CEO of Decathlon, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Tuesday to mark the start of the partnership that will help further promote sport, health, and wellness in Singapore.

Lim Teck Yin (left), CEO of Sport Singapore, and Yves Claude, Asia CEO of Decathlon, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to mark the start of the partnership that will help further promote sport, health, and wellness in Singapore. Photo: Sport Singapore

By 2019, Singaporeans will see Decathlon launch its most advanced store in Asia yet, located at Stadium Boulevard in Kallang, a location closely linked with the local sports scene.

Set to provide visitors with a unique experience, the store will showcase innovation and various forms of technology such as augmented reality and virtual simulations, as well as sports clinics, fitness programmes, and events in-store and within its free-to-play areas.

“I envision that this partnership with Sport Singapore will propel us forward in our long-term goal to make sports accessible to many,” Claude explained.

“By becoming a partner with the national agency for sports, we believe that we can more directly touch the lives of Singaporeans,” he continued.

Besides working together on the Kallang outlet, dubbed the ‘Decathlon Singapore Lab’, SportSG and Decatholon will also be collaborating across multiple areas including Active Health, ActiveSG Academies and Clubs, and the ActiveSG Sport Centres.

“I believe that this partnership is going to grow from strength to strength – it is a very natural marrying of purpose,” said Lim at the signing ceremony, which was held at Decathlon’s Bedok outlet.

“They [Decathlon] come with a good price point, high quality products, [and] more importantly, they come with ideas to encourage participation, and that’s what we want to do when working with them,” Lim elaborated.

The synergy with Decathlon was also felt by lead Active Health expert Kenneth Mc Geough, as he commented on the announcement of an Active Health lab being set up within the Kallang outlet.

Mc Geough expressed: “Having a presence in the Decathlon Singapore Lab in Kallang is going to be huge for Active Health, because there’s an alignment in the vision of the two.”

“Our philosophy is that if you want to make a lifestyle change, you need support, and at Decathlon, they urge their shoppers to exercise with friends,” he pointed out.

Indeed, with Decathlon’s extensive and affordable range of sporting equipment and apparel, picking up gear for an active lifestyle should no longer feel difficult. In fact, the ActiveSG Basketball Academy has already benefitted from the ease of doing so.

Since the launch of the basketball academy two years ago, Decathlon has been providing basketballs and other training equipment to the academy’s programmes.

Head coach and principal of the ActiveSG Basketball Academy, Neo Beng Siang, shared: “It’s definitely been a big help, because when the basketball academy launched, all the basketballs were supplied by Decathlon, [in] all the various sizes.”

To help the younger kids better grasp the foundation of basketball, Neo had requested for basketballs of different sizes. He elaborated: “It’s much easier and it makes the kids more confident to catch and shoot the ball when they’re using a specific-sized basketball.”

Decathlon will also be a partner for the provisioning of apparel to academies and clubs under ActiveSG. Photo: Sport Singapore

Besides equipment, Decathlon will also be a partner for the provisioning of apparel to other academies and clubs under ActiveSG, and more collaborations are expected at sport-related events such as workshops and roadshows.

Concluding his speech at the ceremony, Lim said: “I look forward to the opening of the new store [in Kallang], and more importantly, I look forward to learning from Decathlon, to seeing Decathlon play its role in the sports industry in Singapore.”